Internet woes continue for Valley residents

by cmorton

Clair Morton
Journalist
Although I’ve moved around a bit, I’m a Queensland girl at heart with a love of the ocean and the mighty maroons. Since moving to Grafton earlier this year I have fallen in love with the Valley lifestyle. The best part of my job here is getting to know the locals and putting their stories on paper; there is always something going on and so many people with interesting tales to tell.

SPEEDS worse than dial-up, unreliable connections and pockets of no internet reception are hampering people's efforts to stay connected in the Clarence Valley.

When The Daily Examiner aired Sharon Lehman's frustration over diminishing data allocations from the NBN Co satellite network in Tuesday's newspaper, it quickly became clear just how important internet access is to those affected.

Despite some Facebook users saying people who choose to live in "Sticksville" should deal with the consequences, people living in more populated areas also had similar complaints about their services.

Tanya Anne Cone who lives in Powell St, Grafton, said her connection constantly dropped out and required resetting, despite having changed providers.

"I thought NBN was for us that can't get normal broadband etc," she wrote on Facebook.

"Where we are at Lawrence two pockets on either side of us have NBN and we can't get it and that was after the new tower was activated along Lawrence Rd. It's a joke; we live in a third world in the country."

Those living in Swan Creek had mixed reviews.

Jane and Ron Pritchard said they were told they "are obviously living on the wrong side of the street", which is a small one, to get NBN, while fellow Swan Creek NBN customer Kristy Paxton said she had no problems since getting it connected.

Grafton TAFE IT teacher Jeremy Billett, who has been closely following the NBN Co rollout, said he didn't think the problems people were experiencing were likely to change anytime soon, due to delays in the rollout of the fibre network and satellite demand.

"Especially for those with satellite connection, it'll probably get worse before it gets better," he said.

"There is a huge backlog of clients that want to sign up to satellite and the next ones aren't going to be live for 12-18 months. For those on wireless, as long as you're in the range of the tower they're pretty good."

Mr Billett, who lives at Harwood, said he himself would consider moving if the NBN didn't reach his house in the next 18 months.